Tata Docomo’s ‘Do the New’ has a ‘Dew’y appeal?

Tata Docomo, the GSM offering from Tata Teleservices Ltd following its alliance with Japanese telecom major NTT Docomo, has started its national rollout. This began with the Phase I, where it was launched in four southern states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala – besides Orissa. Primarily, outdoor and print are being used for the rollout right now, along with some radio. A TVC is due to be launched in some time as soon as the pan India rollout happens.

What is interesting is the tagline that the Docomo ads have been sporting – ‘Do the New’. Does that sound familiar? Yes indeed. It strongly reminds one of the popular ‘Do the Dew’ ads of beverage brand Mountain Dew.

When asked about the similarity, KS Chakravarthy, National Creative Director, Draft FCB Ulka, explained, “‘Do the New’ is all about inviting people to be adventurous, be fresh in their thinking and asking people not to follow the beaten track. There is just no similarity with the Dew commercial, which uses the line to bring its brand name in the picture.”

He continued, “The Tata Docomo OOH and print ads have been received very well and the freshness and appeal of the ads will become clear once the TVC is on air. We have also experimented with the theme song of Docomo on a few regional channels, which has also been received well by the people. The ad and the theme are remarkably different from what one has seen in the advertising of this sector.”

In India, though Mountain Dew now sports a new tagline of ‘Dar ke aage jeet hai’ to appeal to and emotionally connect with a larger audience, internationally the ‘Do the Dew’ platform still exists. Also, there is no disputing the fact that the line is immensely popular in India and has certain equity.

Soumitra Karnik, VP and ECD, JWT, remarked, “I have not seen the Docomo ad, but ‘Do the Dew’ line has established its equity and is iconic. There is no denying that both the lines have a connection and one would have liked more effort on part of the creatives to think of something which is not so similar. It’s like rearranging or adding some new word to the iconic line of Nike’s ‘Just Do It’.”